undergrad reading project

Winter Reading Project

Global Art History: Optional Reading Project

In your SFAI Roadmap booklet, you’ll find a copy of E.H. Gombrich's "On Art and Artists." This reading is not mandatory, but is designed to give you an introduction to studying art history at SFAI. At its heart, and much like your Making Project, this essay asks you to look at art / the world around you, not just carefully, or in the terms of what you like or identify with—but curiously. It suggests that Art History and Visual Studies demands a fresh and 'curious eye,' and not necessarily a 'good eye' (to borrow a distinction developed by the Art Historian Irit Rogoff). A curious eye is eager to know, as much as it's 'a bit odd' and willing to go to strange places, or to look at familiar places strangely.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Nicole Archer, Chair, History and Theory of Contemporary Art: narcher@sfai.edu